Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Oh, character questionnaires... interesting things - often saying more about the inventor than the character. 'What colour hair have you got? Eyes? What is your favourite animal? What do you wear to go out on a Friday night?' and so on. There may well be interesting things to discover about a character behind those questions, but quite honestly, do I care?And yet, hot-seating a character can be a very useful thing to do, for some writers. So - on my recent short fiction course at the glorious Gladstone's Library, thirteen writers invented their own - what did they really want to know about their newly emerging characters? What might open up stories? In no particular order, then, here it is. Let me know if it's useful!The Gladstone's Library Character Questionnaire.

What are you carrying?

Can you keep a secret? Are you? What?

Where is your heart?

Where do you gravitate to in a room full of people?

What is your default behaviour under pressure?

What was your last big decision?

Who is your nemesis?

What is your biggest regret?

Who would you most like to say sorry to, and why?

What is your earliest memory?

Do you believe in a god?

Are you spiritual? Give an example?

What is your worst nightmare?

What do you cherish most?

Who do you cherish most?

How did your parents meet?

What would you most like to change about yourself?

Why do you dress like that?

How do you travel?

Who and what, from your past, are you still angry with?

What is the most significant event of your life?

What do you do for pleasure?

When and where were you most happy?

What do you think of yourself?

How do you believe others see you?

How would you like to be remembered?

If you like this, perhaps you might also like the responses the writer Marcel Proust gave to similar list of questions posed by a friend. He is talking about himself of course, but actually, this is a lovely list too.

Thursday, 17 September 2015

The indomitable Greg McQueen, who was the driving force between 100 Stories for Haiti anthology, after the Haiti disaster some years ago, is organising another charity anthology - this time to raise funds for the Red Cross in their efforts to help the refugee crisis.

Here is Greg, talking about this new initiative.

I'm delighted to be part of the selection team for the anthology - look forward to reading your stories! Here are the guidelines for submission.

Refugees Welcome Anthology call for subs, via Coboox.com - Submission Guidelines
* Short Stories
* 3,000 words (maximum)
* We want stories of any genre that are about happiness, friendship, community, and humanity. Stories with a dash of humour and lots of hope.

Stories that somehow shine a light of hope in a dark situation.
* We DO NOT want stories about death, destruction, or war.
* Stories must be submitted through the Coboox system. We will not accept submissions via email.

How to submit your story

* Make a profile on Coboox
* Create a project on the Coboox system
* Choose the ‪#‎RefugeesWelcome‬ Anthology workflow
* Find a reader and editor on the Coboox system to help get your story ready for the selection panel who will choose the stories for inclusion in the anthology

Monday, 7 September 2015

Stunning - a gorgeously produced book, a real fizz to open my copies and sit on the floor going "Hey! Look who's here!"

Weird, wonderful and full of poetic truth. We like to think we know our partner but this funny collection of stories shows just how complex our nearest and dearest can be. For some people, it can be a horrifying idea but Ed's Wife shows how wonderful 'different' can be.

This gorgeous book of beautifully illustrated short texts excavates the deep love between a man and a woman using insect and animal behaviour as a brilliant way to articulate the complexities of affection, bonding, intimacy, attraction, sex, loneliness and loss. A fabulous blurring of short-short fiction and prose poetry, which cumulatively creates a novelistic experience as well as being a delightful dip-in dip-out box of bite size chunks you can enjoy on their own.

This collection of beautifully-illustrated, funny and poignant miniatures illuminates one of life's essential challenges: recognising that, although we look similar, The Other (even The Other who shares our bed), may actually be as different from us as another species. If you love me, Ed's wife is saying, don't pin me down, fix me in amber. Just let me be this... and this ... and this. Ed wakes up not knowing who - or what - will be there, struggling to understand, to accept, to just be.

Liquorice Fish Books is a new imprint from Cinnamon Press to promote the innovative and idiosyncratic in contemporary writing: writers who are passionate and committed to finding an individual voice and approach to their writing; who are restless and want to explore the many possibilities inherent in language and the written word; or who wish to celebrate and extend the vibrant and varied traditions — and anti-traditions &8212; that emerged during the 20th Century but which have been too often marginalised and belittled by the world of corporate authorship

If you would like a copy, Ed is £8.99 plus p and p from all the usual suspects, but please support the indie presses by buying direct!

Thursday, 27 August 2015

Those who have read the post below, added here back in April after a brilliant workshop in Ireland, will know the significance of ‘Shall we draw a house?’ The moment when I revisited for the first time, a formative event - a rainy day when my mother set me and two friends, all of us aged three or four, the task of drawing a house. And the best was to win a biscuit. The others drew normal houses, rectangles with a roof, windows, door, chimney, garden path. Fences. I, on the other hand, drew an enormous edifice, so big it had to go round to the other side of the paper. It had hundreds of chimneys, so many rooms the windows overlapped. It has doors everywhere, even at first floor level and in the roof. It was all the colours I could get my hands on. I remember scrabbling across the table for the red, the blue, the yellow.

Judgement time, and I saw disappointment all over my mother’s face. ‘That’s not a house, she said, and awarded the biscuit to a drawing that approximated what she had in her head.

A lightbulb moment, that workshop, and realising that I was affected so deeply by that occurrence, one I hadn’t so much as thought about for decades. My house was a good house. So were the others. The mistake was/is in having my house compared with the others, and Mum expecting someone else’s creation to mirror her own idea of what it should be. And showing it.

If your 'house' happens to be what 'Mummy' wants, (for 'Mummy' read any of the following: publishers, agents, editors, competition judges, other writers, friends, well-meaning or not, family, well-meaning or not) that is terrific. If not, and you are a fragile three-year old somewhere inside, you are walking into difficult territory. Territory you will have to learn to manage.

Have a think. Are you still ‘drawing the house in your mother’s head...’? Or have you freed up, and are now happily drawing your own, what you want to draw?

Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Always fascinated by our creativity and how it can be encouraged and so easily closed down, and because I have a growing collection of books exploring the writing process, a while ago I bought a copy of a book about Proprioceptive Writing: Writing the Mind Alive by Linda Trichter Metcalf and Tobin Simon. I dipped into the theories of a process in which a writer slows down, focuses, has music playing in the background (baroque music works best, it said), lights a candle and listens to their thoughts. The book made great claims for the process - I am quoting here:Here's what you can expect:

opening the floodgates of expression

unburdening the mind

resolving emotional conflict

liberating the imagination

increased capacity to focus

increased awareness, confidence and self-trust

growing sense of intelligence

burgeoning creativity

following thought flow to its source in story and emotion

and this reader, being a sceptic, leaped in, scanned, cherry-picked like crazy. "I have never been able to write with music on," I said to myself, so ditched the musical element immediately, never tried it. I lit a candle on my desk, and waited for inspiration to hit. A few minutes later I blew the candle out, felt utterly silly, and the book slipped into its place on the shelf, to be revisited in due course. As and when. Or rather, forgotten about.

Fast forward a few years. I arrive at my lovely writers' retreat, Anam Cara, in Ireland (where I am writing this). Staying there too is a lovely woman called Ginny Keegan who has just been leading a week-long workshop on guess what... Proprioceptive Writing. You can find a description of the workshop that had just finished here, together with a link to Ginny's website: http://www.ginnykeeganwatercolors.com/anam-cara-retreat-april-2015.html

Ginny had agreed to run an afternoon workshop for some local writers and kindly invited me to join in - so, with some trepidation, and not completely convinced but trying to keep an open mind, I did so. What follows is a description of my first experience of doing a proprioceptive 'write', together with a snippet of the result. I ought to start by saying I'd been feeling creatively wrung out, finding it hard to fight through (as I always have to) the negative voices all writers experience, I'm sure, at one point or another - no one wants this - forget it - this is rubbish. Also - importantly, I don't like to write at a table with other writers - just a 'thing' of mine. I am hugely aware of the other writers, their writing/not writing movements. And I don't write to music -see above. I have always found it very intrusive.

----------------------------After a brief introduction and explanation, we all moved, in silence, to the dining table. Plain, unlined paper awaited us, and small candles were set by every place. We followed our instructions and lit the candles. No speaking, no interacting - just slowing down, calming down.

Ginny had told us she would start the music, and we should listen to our thoughts, and write them down. Every so often, she said, if a word seemed resonant, holding deeper possibilities, we should question it as we wrote: 'What do I mean by 'deeper'...' for example. And let that question take you where it would. Not to censor. Not to write for feedback, for publication, for anything other than an exploration.The music began. Baroque music which apparently works alongside the brain's own rhythms, echoes the heartbeat, calms you.

Whatever it does, my own thoughts and connections started flowing and I duly wrote them down, with no real expectations of this being useful but still. I'd give it a good go. At no time was the music anything other than a gentle accompaniment. I was aware of it running alongside me, but that is all - no intrusion.The process of slowing down and questioning one's choice of words was a rather potent one, utterly surprising, occasionally emotional. I was completely but completely unaware of time passing, and the 25 minutes were gone in a flash. I hadn't noticed the other writers round the table.During the process, I found myself revisiting a scene from my early childhood that I hadn't thought about consciously for decades - and this is that snippet.

I am remembering being in our kitchen, at the table, aged three or four, with two friends, and my mother has got us drawing a house - she will tell us which house is the best house.Mine is multi-layered, and I use ALL my crayons - there are hundreds of windows, five chimneys because I can 'do' five, and smoke rising into the sky. It covers the paper and I have to turn over to finish the house on the other side.My friends have drawn careful houses, two chimneys, two windows for bedrooms, two windows downstairs and one front door - just like we are shown at school when they say 'Shall we draw a house?'I see my mother looking at the drawings. I see her struggle with herself. I see her say the other houses are lovely, and what was I doing? I know how to draw proper houses, don't I?And the others get a biscuit.

I had revisited for the first time a formative moment when my creativity was 'not good enough', judged wanting by someone important. I had been working round a table, on 'safe' ground which turned out to be the opposite. It was absolutely astounding. Later, we shared our writes in a session during which there is no feedback, during which our words were listened to, acknowledged. But no comment, no critique, no feedback apart from the session leader (Ginny) who would only reflect on the process as evidenced by the write. Not a word about the content. The content, our thoughts, are ours.It's certainly not an end in itself. But now, thanks to one session of Proprioceptive Writing, I have learned a new way of opening up - I can begin to unearth where my struggles with creativity come from, the hard work it always is to get through. Isn't it through looking at where we've come from that we can understand where we are, and go on ahead on more solid ground?More importantly, maybe I can point other writers towards a process that will do good things for them too. And, less importantly perhaps, I know the foundations of my dislike of working round a table...Thank you Ginny!

Thursday, 16 April 2015

Hmm. The moral of the story seems to be don't have a rather nice carafe of Sancerre rose before attending a book launch, so you end up arriving late, as an Eminent Poet support act is about to begin reading. But that's what happened, so Nancy and I stumbled in quietly as possible, to find the cafe at Waterstone's Piccadilly packed, and we had to stumble through the audience, and to the back to find seats! Ah well. We got there, to celebrate the launch of a smashing book, one that has already garnered great reviews, so don't go by what I say - just read it before everyone asks if you have.

It's funny, it's poignant, clever, grabs you from page one and won't let you go until the end, when believe me, you won't forget the story, or the central character, young Mickey Donnelley. What more can you ask of a book? Mr McVeigh kindly agreed to answer a few odd questions for the blog in celebration of the launch - so here you go.

VG: If you could choose a scene from The Good Son and have it painted, which scene would you pick, who would you choose as the artist, and why on both counts.

Paul: Most of the novel takes place in a couple of streets in a housing estate in Belfast during the Troubles, so one of the scenes that stands out for me visually is the first time the main character Mickey leaves Ardoyne. He stands on Napoleon's Nose (a high point on Cave Hill, Belfast) and from this view he sees Belfast Lough and a ship leaving, heading out of Northern Ireland and away from the Troubles. Quite pivotal for him. I would chose Turner to paint it because he is one of my favourite artists and his paintings of the sea are incredible.

VG: When The Good Son is made into a film, who would you like to play in particular Ma, Da and Paddy?

Paul: Ha! I wish. It's hard to be obvious. And not just chose your favourite actors and make them fit. I loved Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake and I think she would play Ma to perfection.

That stoic quality she captured so well, the no nonsense working class mother and the understated compassion. She would be brilliant.

For Da, Daniel Day Lewis is one of my favourite actors. So intense. I think he would bring out the hopelessness and despair of the man, behind the simplicity of how Mickey sees him. He could also play the darker, violent side.

He'd make a deep impression of a character who isn't in the novel for a long time but has a huge effect on the family.

Paddy. I don't know many young actors. Do you have any suggestions?

VG: Erm, nope, come to think of it. Sorry! Next question, she said, sidestepping neatly. Is Mickey Donnelly a heroic character in the classical sense? (Wikipedia - "a hero is a character who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, displayscourage or self-sacrifice—that is, heroism—for somegreater good.Historically, the first heros displayed courage or excellence as warriors. The word's meaning was later extended to include moral excellence.")

(I think he is... but over to the creator...)

Paul McVeigh

Paul: Yes, I think he is. That's been on my mind recently. As writers we can show someone's true character by putting them under extreme pressure. How they react reveals who they are, or are to become. When you have a character like Mickey, who refuses to give in to the despair of poverty and war, fights to maintain his dignity when all around them are losing theirs, in a society where everything he stands for is mocked or brutally destroyed and yet stands in front of them all and says 'I don't care what you think. I know who I am,' then I think you have a hero. He is only a small boy, fighting on all fronts and living in fear, but he is fearless when it comes to protecting the ones he loves. He will take on his older brother, his father, the boys in the street and even the IRA if he has to. He protects, without them even knowing, never wanting to embarrass or trouble them (with Ma), or for them to the evil exists (with his little sister Maggie). Mickey sacrifices his own moral integrity to allow the ones he loves to keep theirs. But he's not a Saint either. He has flaws and a wicked sense of humour, and that keeps him from being too perfect or overly sentimental.VG: I wish the book so much success, Paul - but suspect it doesn't need my good wishes. Here is just one review, from the eminent Booktrust:

Whatever your age, gender or nationality, so compelling is this narrative that while you read it you're eleven or twelve, on the cusp of puberty: a boy discovering your identity one summer holiday in Catholic Belfast at the height of The Troubles.
To grown-ups, Mickey Donnelly's the archetypal good boy. Polite and amenable, he'll do anything to help his mammy. It's just as well. Mickey's da is oppressed and floundering. He's an alcoholic, free with his fists, and prone to slipping his hand into Mickey's ma's purse to buy his next drink. That's why she keeps checking it's in her pocket. Mickey was heading for grammar school till lack of money ruined his chances. His brother tells him he's so soft he'll never survive the rough local school. If Mickey can't escape via grammar school, he'll escape to America through acting.
Paul McVeigh's Belfast is emotionally raw and brutal. The streets are barricaded, Brit soldiers drag children from their beds in the middle of the night, and their play parks are bomb sites. This is Troubles-era Belfast, though it could equally represent children's experience of warzones anywhere. The Good Son is a triumph of empathy and the understanding of human dynamics, yet to say that is to vastly understate the range of McVeigh's writing. Mickey is the funniest, most endearing human being for whom we feel huge compassion as he faces each adversity. This novel envelops the reader with its humanity and its down-to-earth humour leaves you laughing.

The Good Son is published by Salt, and is available from all good bookshops. Support the indies!

Wednesday, 11 March 2015

Danny isn't an author, and the rap isn't a book - he is a young man I met today at the National Crimebeat Awards in London. He is a member of the Respond Academy team from St Leonard's on Sea, East Sussex, who won third place - and we are hugely proud of them all. Chris had put this brilliant initiative forward for the awards - and we are delighted they were not only finalists but prizewinners!Danny was going to perform a rap as part of the group's presentation - but for one reason or another, he was not able to. He was kind enough to give me a copy of the words, which tell how important music has been in helping him turn his life around when 'home' is not the place of safety we like to think it is.

Rap

The minute people realised I was a big kid who could throw a mean slug

people would stop turning round and labelling me as a thug.

After that day I would go home and never receive a kiss or hug

and never receive a single ounce of love

‘til I turned round and said that’s it.

Enough is enough.

Because I turned round and walked away,

that’s the reason I can talk the way I talk today.

See, I was taught to be a criminal and commit crimes every day,

until one day I woke up and realised crime isn’t the way.

Back then I was a confused little kid, so I focused on my music.

Music is like therapy helping me and that’s why I use it,

so now I been given this opportunity I’m not going to abuse it.

Music is my life, and that’s why I choose it.

Brilliant. Thanks to Danny and the whole team.

All the winners were taken off for a fab trip to the London Eye - a lovely day for it! Read on for more about Respond Academy, which helps young people who for one reason or another aren't fitting into the education system...

Pablo & Jc McFee 2006 devised a specialist education programme using the Arts, Music & Media that gave young people a thirst for learning and helping them to find new ways of working within the creative fields to create employment or work along side other Artists and professionals on incredible high profile or local events or projects. Jc realized that the Arts Award in 2007 was the way forward to obtain qualifications for our Community members as well as some of the most excluded challenging Students from EBD schools giving them 2 Gcse’s to enable them to go towards their further education.

Respond Academy has a proven track record from 2004 that has given numerous life changing opportunities to young people in our community to learn art, dance, photography, writing lyrics, learn how to use apple iMacs inc ;Numerous software for Film, Production, Vocal Booth, Sound Desk, Live instruments Music Music, IT,ART mixed media ,Painting or Drawing

Here is a short-list of just some of the achievements some of the young people who attend either as part of the alternative education project or the community project.

At university to study; law, Film,multi-media, drama, art, & business studies

Returning to mainstream school and maintaining behaviour to continue at college. .

100+ young people starting at college and completing their courses.

50+ young person going to college at 18 years of age – after no formal education since they were 13/14 years old

12 gained training and employment on film’s working with a mainstream film producers and commercial film company

59 students gaining GCSE level qualifications (Silver Arts Awards)

2 students gaining AS level qualifications (Gold Arts Awards)

12 Bronze Arts Award

11 BTECs in 1st Certificate Music Production. 1 student obtained a Double Distinction after having been excluded from EBD unit School and dispite not able to read or write but having a natural ability for iMac programmes and software .

100+ Learning to understand their behaviour and consequences

30+people attending various training courses

15 Peer trainers gaining paid employment for workshops they had devised and delivered

2 young people sought their own funding for music/art projects they had devised. Both these projects exceeded all expectations

A core group of 4 successfully co-event managed Parklive 2007 a youth music festival linked to The Annual Beer Festival in Hastings

A group of 10/12 facilitated various music/dance/mc-DJ events throughout 2007 through 2012 in East Sussex

A group of 4 devised & delivered short reels, an innovative film project in conjunction with Children’s Services, Youth Development Services, and local schools in 2009 .

2 members sought funding from Youth Bank and started an incredible successful youth monthly Disco event called VIBES in 2007-2009 VIBES founder Lauren was so innovative that she Booked Tynchy Stryder the WEEK before he went into NO1 & then she booked Tinie Tempah & the next week he was A Star and a few other exciting Artists .Everything was run and managed by a an amazing team of young people aged from 14-21 years old.

we have a selection of Respond Academy LIVE Up & Coming Artists

Devonerri & Sully won MAKING TRACKS with a tune called {I like Hastings } Southern Railway in 2011

we have a in house z1 Film Crew

JUNE 2012 our Youth Ambassador went to Sierra Leone to make new Links with other Youth Groups Watch this Space.

Members are commissioned to run multi/ mixed art /live music workshops with CAMHS young people in-house at The academy & then Eastbourne in 2012

Members are commissioned to run Dance workshops at Specialist schools in Bexhill on Sea

Members are commissioned to event manage and host community events.

Members are commissioned to make flyers for Companies and Artists.

Members are offered film extra roles .

Members have been commissioned to make live soundtracks for Films 2012 .

Members have been asked to sit on numerous forums to give their opinions as young people .

Members have been asked to perform live at numerous community events since 2007 -2012

Artists Rebecca Youssefi hosted numerous art exhibitions and events on her own and members work whilst in house Curator for The Academy and Coastal Currents in Hastings 2011

Numerous innovative In – house video shorts including dancing, singing

Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Contracts flew backwards and forwards a couple of weeks ago, between two lovely indie publishers and meself.

First, then, Ed's Wife and Other Creatures, the illustrated flash collection, my collaboration with the terrific Lynn Roberts, will be published by a new imprint of Cinnamon called Liquorice Fish Books, and with a fair wind will appear in early October. http://www.cinnamonpress.com/home/liquorice-fish-books/
I loved the name when I heard it, love liquorice as anyone knows who has read The Coward's Tale! I looked at the website to see what they were going to publish...and it said this: they were here to:

"promote the innovative and idiosyncratic in contemporary writing: writers who are passionate and committed to finding an individual voice and approach to their writing; who are restless and want to explore the many possibilities inherent in language and the written word; or who wish to celebrate and extend the vibrant and varied traditions — and anti-traditions — that emerged during the 20th Century but which have been too often marginalised and belittled by the world of corporate authorship."

Would they like this strange collection which didn't seem to fit anywhere?
Suffice it to say they did, am enjoying working with editor Adam Craig on the final manuscript, and can't wait to see ED in print!

This is what they say about ED's Wife:

"Described by Tania Hershman as “funny and poignant”, this exquisite collection by well-known poet and writer, Vanessa Gebbie, and illustrator, Lynn Roberts, explores the ever-shifting face of relationships and what it means to allow another person into your life. Delicate and disturbing by turns, gently surreal yet anchored in the everyday, Ed’s Wife and Other Creatures is a book not to be missed."

Next, a full poetry collection has been accepted for publication by the lovely Cultured Llama.

Based in Kent, this great publisher is very local to me, and I have briefly worked with Maria McCarthy and Bob Carling, the owners. I am so delighted to be working with them on 'Memorandum' - a collection of poems inspired by war memorials of the Great War. The book should be out in the Spring 2016.

My calculations make that books number seven and eight since 2008. That'll do for now, although there is another on the chocks with Cultured Llama - number nine, due out in 2017. I'm still working on that one, details later on.

So here's to the independents. Support them, readers. Buy their books, keep the guardians of originality afloat. And writers - get your work out there!

Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Thursday evening last week, and a chance to read poetry with poetry buddy Caroline Davies at a rather terrific event in Bedford, called Ouse Muse. Organised by poet Ian McEwen, this friendly, well-supported event also is a chance for local poets to take one of the open mike slots available - and it was great to hear such a range of work. Poetry really is alive and kicking in Bedford!
Staying overnight with Caroline, in Wing, about an hour away - such an historic place - and spent a couple of hours the next morning running a creative workshop for members of her writing group who meet in the village library.
I love this side of the writing life - sharing readings, sharing tips, giving permission to other writers to open up and enjoy their gifts.

The next event planned is this:

Niyati Keni is a terrific writer - her debut novel Esperanza Street (Andotherstories) is a beautiful, poignant exploration of a community in danger, in the Philippines. I know, I endorsed it! It is being launched in Brighton at a triple writer event also celebrating those works of art that inspired three novels - Esperanza Street, my Coward's Tale, and Suzanne Joinson's 'A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar'. Look forward to this one very much!
It is free entry, with a cash bar - so if you are in Brighton - come along and say hello.

Friday, 2 January 2015

From March onwards, 2014 was always going to be on the slow side writing-wise thanks to The Other Half becoming a High Sheriff - a great honour, but something which was going to impinge on our lives for a twelvemonth.

Poetry seems to have taken a front seat, no matter how much I tried to ask it to move the back of the room. Here then, a month by month look at the "quiet" year that was 2014...

I managed to 'finish' the second novel in a final blast of creative energy. It was great fun to research and write, and a brilliant challenge, while it lasted. However, ‘Kit’ is staying put for the moment - it’s not quite there.

A commission, together with a group of poets, to use a Royal Academy exhibition as inspiration, write and then perform a poem at The RA. The exhibition, Sensing Spaces, was a collection of monumental installations in all the exhibition spaces, created by eminent architects from all over the world. The challenge was to respond to one, some or all of these in whatever way we wished.The brainchild of novelist, poet, actor and academic Emer Gillespie, and poets Catherine Smith and Abegail Morley - a team called Ekphrasis. This was a marvellous opportunity, one that came to life on the performance night - as we all interacted with the visitors, performing our poems in situ. The event was filmed, and a booklet was published - it really was the most extraordinary thing to do for a first poetry commission. Follow that, as they say. See here for the Royal Academy blog writeup: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/wandering-words

London Short Story Festival, a terrific series of events organised on behalf of London’s Spread the Word by Paul McVeigh.

I ran a series of fun freebie writing thingummies in the basement of Waterstones Piccadilly and chairing a panel discussion: getting secrets out of publishers and agents...

Runner up in Adlestrop Poetry comp

Poems accepted by Onslaught Press for ‘Poems for Gaza’ publication

Gave a masterclass on character at Waterstones Piccadilly, and read ‘Dodie’s Gift’ for The Word Factory, alongside Carys Bray and Val McDiarmid.

July:

The Thirteenth International Conference on the Short Story in English, held for the first time in Vienna. I attended thanks to marvellous invitations to teach, to read, and to participate in a panel discussion.To go to writerly receptions and readings hosted by the US Cultural centre, the Irish ambassador, the Canadian Australian and Austrian embassies.

And what a joy it was to be with friends, to meet many new ones, and to spend the best part of the week immersed in talks, readings and discussions about one of the best forms of fiction.

2-6 - Writers’ Pals trip to the Somme and Ypres, guided by the redoubtable Jeremy Banning. Two days on the Somme, one day visiting Loos and the Boar’s Head among others, and two days in and around Ypres.

A poem “Stages of Remembrance” is published in the lovely print magazine Confingo, and read at their launch.

11th: a great salon event at Brighton University, invited by writer-in-residence Clare Best, debating and mulling on the subject of Remembrance, Resistance and Writing, together with Neil Bartlett, followed by a smashing supper with all the creative writing staff - so good to catch up.

19th” a lovely poetry event - a very impromptu last-minute arrangement, thanks to Sasha Dugdale, a poets’ walk from various points to the Chattri, the Indian memorial on the Downs above Brighton.

Modern Poetry in Translation was focussing on the poetry of WW1 - and Punjabi Poet Amarjit Chandan was the guest of honour. He read a eulogy to the departed, and his translations of Punjabi songs written by those women whose men left to fight for us in the Great War. Readings and soup!

19th: Dinner at Nat Liberal Club to celebrate the winners of the 2015 Gladstone’s Library Residencies.

20th: the launch of ‘Letters to the Unknown Soldier at the RCA, edited by Kate Pullinger and Neil Bartlett- such a good event - as many of the 120 writers as could make it - including several youngsters and their parents. My highlight was hearing a letter read out by Andrew Motion - to discover the writer was a besuited young lad aged about 10, knee high to the proverbial, parents proud as anything.

20th: The biggest surprise - The Half-life of Fathers wasreviewed, and included ‘among‘the best pamphlets of 2014’ by the TLS.

22: Fab workshop from The Word Factory at Waterstones’ Piccadilly by the unparalleled David Vann

December

Poem ‘Timeline’ accepted for publication by the print publication Acumen, in January.

Two poems accepted for Poems for a Liminal Age anthology (Sentinel, 2015).

................

One of the joys of this writing stuff is being in the company of others on the same but different journey. (They will know what I mean!)

2014 special mentions:Andrew Marshall, hugely valued writing buddy, whose career spans so many facets. And Gail Louw, playwright extraordinaire and member of the same writing group - whose plays are now hitting the stage all over the place - UK, South Africa, USA. Amazing people both.

Poetry buddy Caroline Davies, whose steady incisive feedback has been so valuable too, and with whom I’ve had such fun and interesting times this year, tracking down war memorials, among other things.

Sylvia Petter, the whizziest person I know, and a fantastic writer, who organised the Thirteenth Conference on the Short Story (see July) with such aplomb, and whose company is absolutely magical, a stream of endless interest. Tania Hershman and her co-writer Courttia Newland, whose terrific text book on writing the short story has just been published by Bloomsbury -http://bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-short-stories-9781408130803/

Sue Guiney, whose writing has led her down very inspirational paths. Her work among the young people of Cambodia is seriously changing lives : www.sueguiney.com . Sue is the founder of Writing Through Cambodia, a program which uses the creative writing of poetry and short stories to develop English fluency, conceptual thinking and self-esteem for Cambodian students and teachers.Lane Ashfeldt, whose short story collection Saltwater was published this year by Liberties Press. The collection contains a few prizewinners among its twelve stories and a novella. Lane runs a rather lovely bookish B and B in Knighton, if anyone enjoys walking, writing, mulling. http://ashfeldt.com/shop/